It’s inevitable that computers have taken over our lives. Regardless of how you want to look at it, computers have become the ultimate tool utilized by teachers, parents, and most of all, students. We have come to accept the fact that we essentially rely on these machines to the point where we literally need them to function properly. But is this a good thing?
Sure, computers are great. They can help a student keep in touch with their friend, check their email, read up on the latest gossip and take notes on a class lecture all at the same time. Yet how effective are these tasks we’re doing all at the same time? Professor Edmundson from the University of Virginia states that students have become “smart, restless, impatient and like to skate over the surface as quickly as possible.” I would have to agree that as students we are smart, but probably in a different way than what most people would think. In this context, I believe we have become more clever by knowing how to sneak around the system and bring our computers to class, not to take notes like professors think we’re doing, but to surf the Internet and chat with our friends. As KaSondra Carver puts it, “When I have a laptop in front of me, I have the tendency to explore the Internet during class. This leads me to lose the focal point of the lecture being presented.” I’m sure she’s not alone on this one: I’m almost positive that this is the mindset of most, if not all college students today. Computer’s main function to us isn’t to write papers and research information for our next assignment; rather, computers are our friends that help us find new shoes, learn what’s new in Hollywood and communicate with our peers in easier ways than imaginable.
Looking more in depth at Edmundson’s quote, he says that students simply skim over the surface as quickly as we can. Have we really lost our ability to concentrate and actually deeply analyze our assignments? Unfortunately, I would have to agree. Professor Deresiewicz mentions that with our computers, it’s “as if [we] have entered into cyberspace.” We use our computers to escape the reality of the world and enter this bubble where all we do is communicate to others through the wall of technology. Carver goes on to state that for students, “it is as if their eyes are glued straight to the computer screen and the outside world does not concern them.” With computers, we literally enter a world of our own, and anything else occurring around us simply doesn’t matter anymore.
But computers aren’t all bad. As I mentioned before, they’re great in helping students multitask, the most prominent positive feature of computers being the ability to quickly communicate. For me, I know I can easily email my professors if I have a question or need help understanding the material taught in class. I utilize this easy access to obtain the answers and help I need. As Carver states in her essay, “Students take the benefits of this source and use it to receive a better understanding in class and getting help on a personal or educational matter.” What would I do if I had a question on an important essay due the following day and I didn’t have a way to communicate to my professor without getting immediate feedback? Simply put, I would most likely mistakenly write the essay incorrectly and get a poor grade. But because I can so easily talk to my professors (or even friends who are in the same class) and receive their input incredibly quickly through my computer, I now do not need to worry about this frightening possibility.
Sure, we bond with our computers as Edmundson puts it, but is this so terrible? Don’t get me wrong: becoming completely attached to a computer isn’t a good thing in my eyes. Relying solely on one’s computer to shield oneself from the outside world and lose all real contact with others is a sad and upsetting thought. But despite this possibility, I feel computers are actually great ways to better our communication with others, increase our ability to access information and utilize our skills at multitasking. Edmundson and Deresiewicz make computers out to be these awful pieces of technology that have ruined the student culture, but did they not realize that they’re using computers to put their video blog online and to even communicate with each other? How would they have even been able to put this video up without the help of a computer? Of course, they aren’t students, but they still contradicted themselves in this small act.
Furthermore, what Edmundson and Deresiewicz fail to mention is the fact that nearly every generation has had this sort of “distraction” similar to the effects of computers today. Merely 35 years ago was the time of rock and roll and the hippie movement, ideas that adults couldn’t bare to stand. This was also most likely around the time Edmundson and Deresiewicz probably got involved in these movements as well, thus further contradicting themselves. They’re getting upset that our generation is succumbing to the effects of computers, yet they fail to realize they were in our exact same position at one point in their lives as well.
Carver mentions that computers “can be an advantage to utilize in college,” and these quick forms of communication and sending of information are only two of the multitude of uses computers have. Though I do believe our reliance on computers is a bit strong, I know that these machines are much more useful and beneficial than Edmundson and Deresiewicz give them credit for.
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1 comment:
Good hyphenated Title.
Link to bloggingheads.
I’ve sat in the back of enough classes to know that 95% of the time, students are not taking notes. Which is why I usually ban them, but for this class I think it’s necessary.
The quote: skating over the surface as quickly as possible – is not focused on in this paragraph. Instead, you focus on how the internet leads you to entertainment rather than education. Separate these two ideas into different paragraphs.
Ah, see next paragraph you go back on to that topic. But I think you can do a better job analyzing exactly what that means, the implications of such a “skating” idea, and someone who disagrees with that idea.
Good concession/qualification with computers not being all bad.
Third to last paragraph slips into common thinking about computers that has probably been written about too much, but second to last paragraph is a good idea that directly rebuts Edm. And Dere points.
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